A Tale of Two Hives

Air Date: Week of June 13, 2008
stream/download this segment as an MP3 file

Helen Palmer's bees.

Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer is a self-proclaimed “incompetent” beekeeper but recently, something miraculous happened to her hives. She says she owes it all to her queen bee, Victoria.

Transcript

PALMER: I have two bee hives on my back deck.

GELLERMAN: That’s our managing producer, Helen Palmer, who came into work this week and told us a story with a sweet ending.

PALMER: Over the winter, the bees in one of my hives died. No, it probably wasn’t colony collapse disorder – that’s much more a problem for commercial bee-keepers, who truck their bees up and down the country than for hobbyists like me.

Helen Palmer timidly approaches her hive.(Courtesy of Helen Palmer)

Now, I’m not a good beekeeper – in fact I’m incompetent and also timid – I’m very allergic to bee-stings. So I decided to downsize, and not get more bees for the dead hive.

Then I cleaned it out and it seemed such a waste that I changed my mind. Too late – I told you I was incompetent. In April and May you can order three pound packages of bees from lots of breeders; they arrive in the mail. But by June – everybody’s sold out!

Now there is another way of filling an empty hive. You can steal bee-eggs – they’re called brood – from a healthy hive and relocate them. A hive’s kind of like a file cabinet with hanging folders. The queen bee – I call mine Victoria – lays eggs in honeycomb cells that the worker bees build on these folders – they’re called frames.

Helen's hives.

(Courtesy of Helen Palmer)

So to restock a hive you take about three frames and the bees that are hanging out on them and put them in the other hive. Then you order up another queen – they’re shipped overnight from Georgia – and put her into that hive. She lays lots more eggs, and builds up the strength of the colony. But there’s a snag: the bees aren’t too happy when you invade their home and steal their babies, - they tend to attack very aggressively and, as I told you, I’m scared of bees.

Still I was game to take some frames from my healthy hive—it’s just a foot away from the dead one. Then events – or rather the bees - took the decision out of my hand. About nine o’clock last Saturday, suddenly, outside on the deck, the air was thick with bees – bees zooming and buzzing frantically – a whirlwind of bees stretching way up into the sky and way out across the garden. And then – almost as soon as the commotion had started – the swarm was gone. Half the hive just flew off and away.

Now, it’s not actually uncommon – if bees feel they need more space, they DO swarm – but I was dejected. Queen Victoria was gone - my healthy hive was only at half strength – and there was no way I could take brood away from it to repopulate the dead hive. But I was relieved too, I suppose. I mean even if I’d harvest much less honey, at least I wouldn’t have to fight the angry bees.

(Courtesy of Helen Palmer)

Then on Sunday morning, I went out onto the deck, and noticed there were bees going into the empty hive. They’re probably robbers, I thought – stealing the honey from the empty hive – that’s quite common, too. And then suddenly, a massive tornado of bees filled the sky – buzzing furiously and swirling round. They sank down towards the deck – they flowed into the empty hive. Now of course it was choice real estate – well appointed for bees with nice clean frames – but beekeepers will tell you – it’s a waste of effort to set up an empty hive - swarms never move in. I just couldn’t believe it.

But the more I thought about it the more logical it became. I may be an incompetent beekeeper, but bees have been creating colonies, raising brood, and making honey for millennia. They think as one organism – it’s called hive mind. And I have to believe that these bees of mine understood my shortcomings, and took pity on me.

They knew I couldn’t possibly manage to resurrect the dead hive – that I’d squash plenty of them trying and they’d have to sting me – so they saved us all the pain and trouble. So thank you Queen Victoria! I promise not too take too of your much honey!

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Donate to Living on Earth!Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.